Thursday, May 27, 2010

Impressions from the Riesling & Co World Tour 2010 in New York

Picture: Christian G.E.Schiller with Ernst Loosen in New York

The Riesling & Co World Tour 2010 came to San Francisco and New York City

The Riesling & Co World Tour with its mostly German Riesling producers was back in the US in May. In San Francisco, the event took place at the Westin St. Francis on May 11th and featured 28 tables of German wines, representing over 40 German producers. Notable attendees included Jon Bonne of San Francisco Chronicle, Claude Kolm of Fine Wine Review, sommeliers Noah Drano and Tony Cha from Michael Mina and sommeliers Ian Conroy, Bob Moore and John Vuong from Gary Danko.

In New York City, the event took place at the TriBeCa Rooftop on May 13th. The trade and media portion of the tasting attracted over 280 attendees, including Howard Goldberg of The New York Times, Bruce Sanderson of Wine Spectator, Joe Czerwinski of Wine Enthusiast, Josh Green of Wine & Spirits, Lindsay Ronga of Cork'd, David Rosengarten of Saveur and myself. Top trade attendees included Paul Grieco and Matt Stinton of Hearth & Terroir, Bob Paulinski, MW of Winn-Dixie Stores, Aldo Sohm of Le Bernardin, Peter Sichel of BVG Management, and consultant Fred Dexheimer, MS. Following the trade and media tasting, the doors opened for over 190 consumers that were anxious to sample and learn more about the numerous German Rieslings at the tasting.

Pictures: View of the Event and of TriBeCa from the Rooftop

Wine Producer Germany

With about 102,000 hectares (252,000 acres or 1,020 square kilometers) of vineyard, which is around one tenth of the vineyard surface in Spain, France or Italy, wine production in Germany is usually around 9 million hectoliters annually, or to 1.2 billion bottles, which places Germany as the 8th largest wine-producing country in the world. White wine accounts for almost two thirds of the total production.

The German wine industry consists of many small wine producers, totaling about 70.000. If you exclude the about 40.000 operators of less than 0.5 hectare who should probably be classified as hobby winemakers, you are down to 30.000 wine makers. Then, it gets a bit complicated. Many smaller winemakers do not pursue wine making as a full-time occupation, but rather as a supplement to other agriculture or to hospitality. It is not uncommon that a small family-owned tavern or restaurant has its own wine. If we move up to a minimum of 5 hectares, we get down to about 6.000 wineries, accounting for about 60 percent of Germany's total vineyard surface, and it is in this category that the full-time winemakers are primarily found. However, truly large wineries, in terms of their own vineyard holdings, are rare in Germany. Hardly any German wineries reach the size of New World wine making companies. Most wineries present at the show were in the 10 to 20 hectar range, or 7000 to 14000 cases.

Germany’s wine classification system is very complicated. Basically, the sugar content of the fruit at the point of harvest is at its heart. The riper the fruit,the higher the sugar content in the grapes, the higher the classification of the wine. The content of the fruit at the point of harvest, however, has nothing to do with the sweetness of the finished wine. With the exception of the noble sweet wines, at all quality levels, German wine can be bone-dry or sweet.

The Germans measure the sugar content of the grapes with the Oechsle scale. Based on the Oechsle degrees, German wine is classified into nine quality groups, ranging from Tafelwein with the minimum Oechsle degree of 44 to Trockenebeerenauslese with a minimum Oechsle degree of 150. The minimum Oechsle degrees differ somewhat between Germany’s wine regions and between red and white wine. The numbers indicated below are those for the white wines from the Mosel valley.

Tafelwein (Table wine) - the lowest German quality class; has to have at least 44 degrees of Oechsle in the vineyard.

Landwein (Country wine) - 47 degrees of Oechsle at the minimum.

Qualitaetswein bestimmter Anbaugebiete (QbA wine) means a quality wine from one of the thirteen specified German wine regions; close to half of German wine is QbA wine - 50 degrees Ochsle.

Kabinett - 67 degrees Oechsle.

Spaetlese means late harvest but this are simple wines made from grapes with a higher level of Oechsle - 76 degrees, not necessarily wine made with grapes harvested late in the season.

Auslese - 83 degrees of Oechsle.

Beerenauslese - 110 degrees of Oechsle.

Eiswein - icewine, the same minimu level of 110 degrees of Oechsle.

Trockenbeerenauslese - 150 degrees of Oechsle.

Same basics, which are often not well understood, but which are fundamental to the issue: The fermentation of grape must is a complex process in which sugars are transformed into alcohol and carbon dioxide by the action of yeasts. During fermentation, the sugar content of the must declines and potentially disappears completely, while the alcohol content increases. This process stops automatically when the alcohol level in the wine has reached around 13 to 15 percent of the volume. Typically, wines are then bone dry, because all the sugar is gone; this is certainly true for Germany, being a rather northern wine producer.

Three issues arise. First, in reality you have sweet German wines at all quality levels. How do winemakers do this? There are two methods used by German winemakers to generate residual sugar in such wine: (1) Stopping the fermentation at the desired level of sweetness and (2) letting the wine first fully ferment and then adding to the dry and fully fermented wine sterilized grape juice (called in German "Suessreserve"). In the first case, you get a wine that is sweet and low in alcohol. In the second case, you get a wine that is sweet and has a normal alcohol content.

Second, the noble sweet wines. They are a different story. The fruit has such a high sugar level at harvest that there is nothing you can do preventing the wine to remain sweet. These noble-sweet wines are produced either from botrytised grapes or grapes that were harvested during frost. In both cases, the sugar content of the grape is exceptionally high at the time of the harvest and mother nature is unable to ferment all the sugar. Thus, natural sugar remains in the wine and makes the wine sweet. These are the famous sweet dessert wines in Germany: Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, Eiswein.

Third, chaptalization is legal and normal, but only for wines in the Tafelwein, Landwein and QbA categories, which accounts for about 60% of German wine. From Kabinett wines upwards, chaptalization is not allowed. It is obvious that chaptalization is not a means of increasing the sweetness of the wine but of the alcohol content, as in neighboring France.

Riesling

Of all the grapes of Germany, the premier grape variety is the Riesling — a variety that can do well even in stony soil and can subsist on a minimum of moisture. It is a very dependable bearer of high quality grapes which have a high acidity level that gives the wine a racy freshness and contributes to its long life. To reach its full potential, Riesling needs extra days of sun; ripening is very late, usually not until the latter half of October. Riesling produces elegant wines of rich character with an incomparable fragrance and taste, often reminiscent of peaches, or when young, apples.

Germany alone is home to more than 60% of the world’s Riesling vineyards. But German wine is not only Riesling. There are many other interesting grapes.

Participants in New York

There were 46 tables. At many tables, the winemaker himself or herself, or the owner were present and poured the wines. At other tables, the wines were poured by the importer, representing the Weingut. In a number of cases, the winemakers were indicating in the catalogue that they were seeking an importer. I have indicated these winemakers in the listing below.

Picture: Participants of the Riesling and Co Wine Tour 2010 in New York

Weingut Dr. Loosen, Mosel, 10000 cases, www.drloosen.com, Owner Ernst Loosen, Germany’s Riesling Ambassador, who does not need an introduction, poured the wines himself, including a 2006 Beerenauslese, he also produces wines in Oregon and Washington State, including the famous Eroica, in a joint venture with Chateau St. Michelle.

Picture: Christian G.E. Schiller and Ernst Loosen

Weingut Robert Weil, Rheingau, 42000 cases, www.weingut-robert-weil.com, the leading producer from the Rheingau region with 3 wines.

Weingut Markus Molitor, Mosel, 20000 cases, www.markusmolitor.com, one of this year’s Falstaff winemakers of the year with 6 wines, including a Pinot Noir.

WINECONSALE, Germany-based WINECONSALE represents a number of top German winemakers world-wide, owner Joachim Binz poured the wines of Tesch, Dreissigacker, Groebe and Jacob Duijn, star winemaker Martin Tesch was present with 3 wines, including the famous “unplugged”.

Weinhaus Jean Buscher, Rheinhessen, www.jean-buscher.de, Jean Raphael Buscher poured a selection of 6 wines, of which only one was a Riesling, others included Dornfelder, (red) Schwarzriesling and Muskateller, seeking importer.

Braun-Nierstein, Rheinhessen, 10000 cases, www.braunnierstein.de, a selection of 6 wines, of which 4 were dry, all Riesling, except for one Rheinriesling, the focus of the Braun wines is on dry wines and noble sweet wines.

Wein-Tainment, Rheingau, www.schorsch-egers-weinstadt.de, the interesting selection of Franz Georg Eger included 3 classic Rheingau Riesling wines from the Winkeler Hasensprung vineyard and 3 unordodox wines under the label “Moog de Medici”; one of the “Moog de Medici’ was a dry Spaetlese, seeking importer.

Schloss Jahnnisberg, Rheingau, 20000 cases, www.schloss-johannisberg.com, from the estate, where the Spaetlese was invented, 6 classic Rheingau Riesling wines on the sweet side, including an Esiwein.

Weingut Josef Leitz, Rheingau, 31000 cases, www.leitz-wein.de, one of the top German wine producers with a traditional Rheingau Riesling portfolio from a dry QbA wine to a sweet Spaetlese, the former one is the hugely popular 1-2-Dry wine.

Palm Bay International, www.palmbay.com, an importer with a diverse portfolio including S.A Pruem from the Mosel, the brand “Blue Fish” and Schloss Rheinhartshausen in the Rheingau.

Wines of Germany had the most popular tables at the Riesling event - the table was called: 1990's - a Decade of Great Rieslings and it featured 18 wines, half of them in the Auslese category and one 1993 Riesling Trockenbeerenauslese from Weingut Buscher in Rheinhessen.

6 comments:

Guten Tag Christian,What a report... I shall need to find time to read all the details! Thanks for supporting Riesling & friends. We intend to be in DC September 16th, so CU perhaps once again soon.Derek

About Me

I live in the greater Washington DC (US) and Frankfurt am Main (Germany) areas and write about wine. I am a member of the FIJEV (International Federation of Wine and Spirits Journalists and Writers). Before starting to write about wine in 2009, I was for almost 30 years an economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). I am currently in Washington DC.